Ways to better enforce EU food and consumer rules, so as to prevent lower-quality food being sold to people in some parts of Europe, will be discussed on Wednesday.

Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee MEPs and the Commission will debate how to help national authorities to determine whether food companies are breaking EU laws by selling products of dual quality under the same brand and packaging in different countries.

Consumers from a number of EU countries have complained that the quality of some products, such as soft drinks, coffee or fish fingers, is lower in their home country than that of those sold by the same producer under the same brand across the border.

Some food products are sold with the same brand and packaging in several EU member states, but with differing compositions (e.g. containing a different content of meat or fish, a greater fat content or a different type of sweetener).

EU Commission guidelines issued on 26 September 2017 aim to ensure that existing EU laws - the Food Information Regulation, the General Food Law Regulation and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive - are better enforced.

Bratislava will host a high-level ministerial summit on Friday 13 October 2017 to discuss and address the issue of double standards for food products in the EU. Members of the Commission and of the European Parliament will also participate.